In Every Life, At Least One
Though we often push forward despite the pain we carry, sometimes it’s best to pull aside for a bit and find out what’s really going on.
What Would He Have Thought?
It’s Martin Luther King Day and the warmest the temperature got was in the mid-teens; but the media discourse has remained at its standard white hot level. And it made me ask a question: What would Dr. King have to say about the way we talk to the issues of the day and to each other?
Every Day is WDsD
My Facebook feed has been blowing up over the past 24 hours with all kinds of videos, images and well wishes from our community. It started last night with a video from a family that has been walking alongside us – then a text message from the principal of Julia’s school telling all of the […]
World Down Syndrome Day ~ One More Voice
Four World Down Syndrome Days have passed in my daughter’s life, and this will be the third one I’ve written about. I missed the first one because it was only a couple of months after her heart surgery when we were still taking in how marvelously normal things were becoming. A lot has happened since […]
An Open Letter to Julia on Her First Day of Preschool
Editor’s note: As strange as this might seem, Julia’s formal educational career starts today at the three year old preschool class at our local elementary school. I’ve been anticipating and dreading this day for the entire summer, especially in the light of the wrangling we have been in with the special education department of our […]
Talking to a Teenager About Heaven
One of the cool things I get to do in my position at the church is fielding a lot of the tough questions that come in. Our weekend services have a great way of drawing people in and opening all kinds of questions in people’s minds, and that’s where I come in. The subjects are […]
World Down Syndrome Day Plus One Week – Now What?
Let me just get this out there right now. I had a really rough time adjusting my attitude last night as I put Julia to bed. I’m not sure if it was the last of the stomach bug she’s been dealing with or the contrarianism that her whimsical toddler brain has developed, but let’s just […]
Dancing On
The summer is nearly at an end, and we took in the waning hours of the Labor Day weekend with an art show and parade in nearby Franklin and some well deserved afternoon napping. Julia has been down for over two hours; and though she needs the rest, it’s always hard not to dread the […]
Letter from a Bride
I got an email last week that I was not looking forward to. It had been four years since I officiated the wedding of a young couple at my church – I’ll just call them Bill and Kimberly. On paper, you would have thought they had everything going for them. They were both professionals from […]
Good Morning CEM!
editor’s note – sorry for the tardiness of my post! There have been a lot of power outages in Andhra Pradesh due to a coal strike and the internet has been pretty spotty! It’s just after 5am on Monday here at CEM, and call to prayer from the mosque nearby cut quietly through the heavy […]